The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly to a refrigerator which improves the evaporation efficiency of water produced during defrosting, and the cooling efficiency of an auxiliary condenser.
Generally, when coolant absorbs heat via an evaporator for a refrigerator, moisture contained in the surrounding air freezes around the evaporator to form frost which covers the surface thereof. Since such frost decreases cooling efficiency, the frost is removed by a defroster. Water produced from the removal of the frost is collected in a reservoir placed on the bottom of a refrigerator. The collected water is removed by detaching the reservoir from the refrigerator or evaporating the water using heat from an auxiliary condenser.
FIG.1 schematically shows an exploded perspective view of a conventional refrigerator which comprises a reservoir 10 detachably provided on the bottom of a refrigerator body 14 for collecting water, an auxiliary condenser 11 located on the bottom of reservoir 10 for evaporating water collected in reservoir 10, a heat radiating plate 12 coupled to auxiliary condenser 11 for externally radiating heat produced from the auxiliary condenser, and a front cover 13 for enveloping auxiliary condenser 11 and reservoir 10 in order to prevent them from being externally exposed and to shield noise.
In the conventional refrigerator, since auxiliary condenser 11 is separately provided on the bottom of reservoir 10 so that the high temperature gas in auxiliary condenser 11 is mainly air cooled, its cooling efficiency is decreased. Further, since heat radiated from auxiliary condenser 11 is lost in the surrounding air when it is subsequently transmitted from radiating plate 12 placed in contact with auxiliary condenser 11 and on the bottom of reservoir 10, the thermal conductivity is inefficient and the evaporation efficiency of the water decreases.
Furthermore, reservoir 10, radiating plate 12 and auxiliary condenser 11 are separately manufactured, making structure and fabrication complicated, as well as increasing cost and manpower in its fabrication.